Gus Van Sant's Constant Thematic and Cinematic Elements
The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.

By chance, Lenny, a young children's book author, discovers a roll of film in an old camera. Curious, he has it developed and is astonished to find that the pictures must have been taken in Prague in 1968, towards the end of the Prague Spring. One of the photos shows a young woman. To find out more about her, Lenny publishes it in a Prague daily newspaper. The effect is disastrous: his family's house is broken into and his father is murdered. Lenny is certain that there is a connection, because the photos have also disappeared. But neither his sister Isabell nor the police believe him. Shortly afterwards, he receives an anonymous letter containing only a Prague address. With this vague clue, Lenny sets off for the Czech capital.
The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.
Airplane! (1980) is a fun spoof comedy with lots of laughs, right? I watched this film for the first time the other night. I loved it. Then came the racist jokes.
While the director didn't set out to make a feminist film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night" reads as a reclamation of female power in a patriarchal society.
As a huge fan of Sean Baker’s Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, I’ve wanted to watch Anora since before it even was released. But life got in the way, my watchlist grew, and honestly, the fact that it was marketed as a romantic comedy put me off. Even with all the critical praise and the five Academy Awards it won last year, I just kept postponing it indefinitely.
It’s 2021 and what few LGBTQ+ films that are produced by major film studios continue to star cisgender heterosexual actors, rather than actual LGBTQ+ people.